Comparison of Epicardial Adipose Tissue Volume and Coronary Artery Disease Severity in Asymptomatic Adults With Versus Without Diabetes Mellitus

• Published in: The American journal of cardiology 2014-09, Vol.114 (5), p.686-691
• Main Authors: Groves, Elliott M., MD, MEng, Erande, Ashwini S., MPH, MSc, Le, Christine, BS, Salcedo, Jonathan, MD, Hoang, Khiet C., MD, Kumar, Shivesh, MD, Mohar, Dilbahar S., MD, Saremi, Farhood, MD, Im, Jiye, MD, Agrawal, Yashwant, MD, Nadeswaran, Pradeep, Naderi, Nassim, MD, Malik, Shaista, MD, PhD
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adipose Tissue - diagnostic imaging; Adiposity - physiology; Adult; Age; Body fat; Body mass index; Cardiovascular; Cardiovascular disease; Colleges & universities; Confidence intervals; Coronary Angiography - methods; Coronary Artery Disease - diagnostic imaging; Coronary Artery Disease - etiology; Coronary vessels; Diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Gender; Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act 1996-US; Humans; Hypertension; Male; Medical imaging; Middle Aged; Multidetector Computed Tomography - methods; Pericardium - diagnostic imaging; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors; Severity of Illness Index; Variance analysis
• ISSN: 0002-9149; 1879-1913
• DOI: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2014.05.057

Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) has been shown to have important effects on the development of coronary artery disease (CAD) through local paracrine influences on the vascular bed. We compared a cohort of asymptomatic patients with type II diabetes mellitus (DM) without known CAD to an age- and gender-matched group of asymptomatic patients without DM from the CTRAD (Cardiac CT's Role in Asymptomatic Patients with DM-II) study in which patients underwent a cardiac computed tomography angiogram, for early detection of CAD. Mean EAT volumes of 118.6 ± 43.0 and 70.0 ± 44.0 cm3 were found in the DM and non-DM groups, respectively. When stratified by the presence and severity of CAD, it was found that in the DM (p = 0.003) and non-DM groups (p 120 cm3 of EAT was found to be highly correlated with the presence of significant CAD (adjusted odds ratio 4.47, 95% confidence interval 1.35 to 14.82). We found that not only is EAT volume an independent predictor of CAD but that an increasing volume of EAT predicted increasing severity of CAD even after adjustment for CAC score.